One consistent element in the art I have done since I was a boy is monsters.

GERR!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

John Lennon: Rolling Stone Interview

It is always interesting to hear an artist talk about there times and the perception others had of them and their work. John Lennon, after the Beatles split up, seemed to always be trying to get away from the manufactured image of the Beatles. He was interested in a realistic view of the group, it's members, and what and how they created. This interview for Rolling Stone Magazine in 1971 seems to be one of his attempts to strip away the mythology created around the Beatles in favor of an image of them as real people.

As I listened to the interview, I just doodled some Lennon caricatures. They are like tracing the images inside my mind - with no reference outside my memories. A cartoon drawing is, in a way, in the spirit of this interview but, in another way, the antithesis of Lennon's intentions. A cartoon image strips away the unnecessary smoke screen of detail in favor of a more primal notation; but, by distilling an image further away from a realistic rendering, the image becomes more iconic and a symbol of reality rather than a mirror. Which is more real an idea or a reflected image? Which is more intellectual a rendering or a symbol?

For many people, monsters and creatures of all sorts are weird things for someone to enjoy; but the dual nature of our personalities and learning to deal with fear and what is uncontrollable in our lives is common to us all. Humor is a useful tool for that purpose.